


The End of Our Time

by SugarCookieLance



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Betrayal, Character Death(s), Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:31:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7810891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarCookieLance/pseuds/SugarCookieLance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the end comes and you can't trust anyone, what do you do? Can you survive? When the light and color drains from the world can you carry on? Will you carry on? When there's nothing left, no where to call home, will you keep walking? When everyday, every step could spell death will you keep moving?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End of Our Time

Chapter one

A Meeting To Remember 

~Mana~

Mana had expected to go home and make dinner. To possibly catch up on a T.V. show. For his brother to come and sit with him. To comfort his brother as he has nearly every day for the past two months, since Allen went missing. 

 

He hadn’t expected this. He hadn’t expected a child to be sleeping on his front porch. He certainly hadn’t expected them to be bleeding, or for them to have a fever.

\---------

Mana’s day had been fairly eventful. He hadn’t had many patients, though the ones he did have took a lot out of him. 

A teenage boy, about fifteen, had come in with a broken finger, he fell down some stairs and landed on his hand, hard. He put the hand in a splint and the boy went home. The boy came back a few hours later with the broken finger in a lunch box telling Mana that he’d had a game to play so he cut the splint and finger off. Mana had to amputate the whole hand in the end, ending any sort of career the boy may have had in sports. 

But now he’s on his way home, his brother on speaker phone in the passenger seat and a bag of groceries on the floor of the passenger side. Just enough to make dinner for the two of them and have leftovers to snack on the next day. 

“Where are you, Neah?” Mana asks, after hearing what sounded to be glass clinking together and sliding around. 

“I'm at my house. Figured I should probably clean things up around here. Start staying here again, I mean it's only been two months now.” Neah says, hints of bitterness and sorrow laced into his voice. 

“I suppose that is a good idea. But you know you're more than welcome to stay with me as long as you like.” He sighs and shifts into the next lane to take his exit. 

“I know. But hey listen, I'm gonna get off of here and finish this up and I'll see you for dinner, yeah?” Neah says, his voice a bit too loud for Mana’s liking. 

“Of course. I'll see you later, Neah. I love you.” He goes to reach for the phone to hang up but then thinks better of it. Neah will do it, he knows Mana is driving. 

“Yeah, I love you too you clown.” He heard Neah snicker and then a click signifying he'd hung up.

By the time the phone shuts off Mana is pulling into his driveway. He turns the car off and grabs his bag of groceries and pockets his phone before stepping out of the car and and looking over his house. 

It's a small house, though that's okay because now it's only Mana and Neah there, made of gray bricks and white siding with a slanted, gray-shingled roof. A Weeping Willow stands to the left side of the house, near where Rose Bushes begin their wind around the front and right side of the house. A small patch of half-bloomed Sunflowers and Lilies lies just beyond a purple picket fence, both the fence and lilies courtesy of Neah. Not that Mana minds though, that was the first smile he'd gotten from Neah since Allen disappeared. 

“Mana? Mana have you seen Allen?” Nears voice rings through Mana’s living room suddenly. 

“No. Allen hasn't been around here at all, why?” Mana asks, dropping a dirty knife into the sink and walking into the living room to his brother. 

“He's not answering his phone, he's not even answering the landline. He's not at home either. His car's gone.” Neah says, a panicked expression on his face. 

“Calm down brother. Why don't we go to your house and wait for him. Who knows maybe he let someone borrow the car and fell asleep.” Mana says, as calmly as possible. 

“Yeah, yeah that's a good idea.” Neah nods and Mana slips into the kitchen and shuts the oven off from preheating. 

Snatching his keys off the table he goes outside to find Neah already in the car waiting on him. Locking the door behind himself Mana slips into the driver side of Neah’s car and turns the key, pulling out of the driveway and turning to the left. 

“What if something's wrong? What if he left? What if-” Neah begins talking quickly and Mana cuts him off,

“Neah I'm sure it's nothing, just stay calm, okay?” 

It's quiet the rest of the ten minute drive to the house, and Mana is grateful when they pull into the driveway and leave the car. Neah walks ahead and unlocks the door, but he lets Mana in first. 

“Allen? Are you home?” Mana calls out into the silent house. His voice is the only thing that comes back. And then he hears Neah scream, and rushes up the stairs where Neah must have wandered when he wasn't looking and slides down the hallway, gripping the doorframe to save himself from plowing into his brother. He gasps and nearly lets out his own scream as he sees the state of Allen’s room. 

Blood is everywhere. Books, papers, pencils, erasers and glass coat the floor. Allen's phone lay shattered and forgotten on the floor in the middle of his room surrounded by ripped up sheets and a small puddle of blood. 

A whine rips Mana out of his mind and he looks around for where it's coming from. When he finally notices the small body lying on his doorstep he drops his bag of groceries and rushes over. There's blood underneath the boy's head and the little child quivers and Mana notices that he's wearing only a torn, dirty t-shirt and ripped dirty shorts despite it being an unusually cool day out.

He straightens himself out and unbuttons his jacket and pulls it off to wrap the child in. As he wraps the child in it he decides they couldn't possibly be anymore than two or three years old. He mutters a curse and takes out his phone and sends a quick text to Neah.

[Mana] I'm headed to the E.R. There was a little kid passed out and bleeding on my doorstep.[sent 7:45 P.M.]

[Neah] holy fuck are they okay?[Received 7:46P.M.]

Mana doesn't answer his brother back and instead picks the small child up and scurries back to his car. He tucks the child into the back seat and buckles him in tightly before hopping back into the driver's seat and starting the car. He peels out of the driveway and damn near speeds to the nearest E.R., as he has no idea how long the kids been there on his doorstep.

He parks close to the entrance of the E.R. and barely takes time to lock his car as he rushes the child into the hospital. He slides to a stop at the front desk, and holds the kid out towards the receptionist at the desk. 

“Help. I found them passed out on my doorstep, I don't know what's wrong with them or how long they were there but I don't have the equipment to make sure they'll be okay at home.” Mana rushes his sentence out and is worried the nurse might not have heard what he said. He sighs in relief as the receptionist presses a pager and a nurse rolls a gurney over and takes the boy away into the back. 

“Please have a seat sir. We'll keep you filled in. Do you know the kid, uhm, sir?” The receptionist asks, gathering some papers. 

“No I don't know who they are, I'm sorry and my names Mana. But I do want to know what's going on with him.” Mana says, going to sit down in a chair across from the desk. 

Leaning his head back against the wall Mana lets his eyes slide shut. Vaguely he notices something cooling on his shoulder and chest where he'd held the child at, but he ignores it in favour of wondering why he wants to know what is going on with the child that he found in his doorstep. Why he's not going home and having dinner with his brother. He starts to chalk it up to curiosity, and even thinks to himself that it's not every day you find a little kid bleeding and shaking on your doorstep, before he realizes that the kid reminds him of Allen. They had the same rusty hair, similar faces, though the child was considerably smaller. He hadn't gotten to see the kids eyes but he bet they were the same metallic blue/grey as Allens.

“Mana, oh my god Mana!” Neah says, breathing heavily. He's nearly hyperventilating and Mana pulls him from the room. 

“Neah, Neah stay with me.” He pats his cheek and pulls him downstairs towards the house phone, on the way he notices little spots of blood spots on the floor and walls. He nearly slips on the last step and latches onto an unsteady Neah to keep himself upright. He sits Neah on the steps and goes over and grabs the phone, pressing the speed dial for the police. 

“There was so much blood, Mana.” Neah’s mumbling to him but Mana ignores him in favour of getting the police on the scene. 

Whatever happened here was violent and messy and they still had no idea where Allen was. He drops the phone back onto the hook and goes into the kitchen and gets a tall glass of water. Mana makes his way back to Neah quickly, carefully and kneels in front the man. He holds the glass of water out to him and begins to speak, 

“Neah, I need you to drink this and stay calm, can you do that?” Mana says calmly and quietly. 

“Mana, Mana no, I can't. There was so much blood Mana!” Neah cries loudly, voice shaky.

“Neah, you have to stay calm it'll be okay, I promise.” Mana says doing his best to keep his voice steady for Neah. He pushes the glass of water towards him again gently and this time Neah grabs the cup and takes a sip. 

“God, I think I'm gonna throw up” Neah whispers and Mana grabs a small trash container from beneath the nearby hallway table and holds it out to Neah who sets the glass on the step beside him and takes it. 

“Are you the one who brought the little boy in?” Mana’s startled from his mind once again as a nurse speaks. 

“Yes, I am.” He says, sitting up straight then standing as the nurse motions for him to follow her. 

“He's stable, though he's still asleep right now. I'll let the Doctor fill you in on what all was done to him, I just got in for my shift so I haven't gotten all the details yet myself.” She says, Mana merely nods and follows her. 

They walk through the emergency section and go up an elevator to the third floor. She leads him through a maze of hallways all the while tossing questions at Mana that he doesn't know the answer to.

“How old is he?”

“What's his name?” 

“Where does he live?” 

He just winces and gives an “I have no idea I'm sorry, I found him on my doorstep when I got home from work.” 

They finally stop at a room, 307 and after she knocks they enter. The doctor smiles at him and immediately begins talking. 

“I'm Doctor Wolf, you must be his father?” 

“Ah no. I just, found him on my doorstep when I got home from work today.” Mana says, scratching the back of his head and offering an awkward smile. 

“Oh… Well, then, Nona go contact the officials. We’ll have to go through them to find out where this boy is supposed to be.” The doctor says, moving about, gathering papers and the like. 

“Uh, sir if it's alright what exactly is wrong with him? He was bleeding kind of bad when I found him.” Mana asks shuffling about. The doctor waits for Nona to leave before answering.

“Technically I shouldn't tell you this but, someone cut his face from the top of his forehead to his chin, going straight through his eye. He’ll never be able to use it again. There were a few other minor cuts here and there that looked to be caused by the force of a hit, and a couple bruises here and there. He has pretty severe pneumonia also, so I would like to keep him here for a while.” Wolf sighs, stacking his papers and clipping them to his clipboard. “Please wait here for the officials, they may want to speak with you.”

He leaves the room and Mana turns to look at the boy that lay virtually unmoving on the white sheeted bed. The whole left side of his face is covered in bandages, and bandages cover sections of his arms that lay on top of the blankets. Mana sighs and flops Ungracefully into a hard plastic chair and pulls out his phone. 

[Neah] Mana? What's goin on? [received 8:12 P.M.]  
[Neah] Mana really are you okay? Is the kid okay? [received 8:45 P.M.]  
[Neah] why aren't you answering me? [received 9:03 P.M.]  
[Mana] Sorry Neah I kinda fell asleep in the waiting room [sent 9:20 P.M]  
[Neah] Jesus Mana! [received 9:21 P.M.]  
[Neah] I was fucking terrified! [received 9:21 P.M.]

Mana winces and bites his lip as his mind flashes back to Allen and all that happened. 

[Mana] I know, I know I'm sorry. But the doctor said that the kid will be okay. [sent 9:24 P.M.]  
[Neah] I guess that's something good to hear. So does that mean you can come home? [received 9:25 P.M.]  
[Mana] not quite. The doctor wants me to wait around for officials to come as they may want to talk to me. [sent 9:26 P.M]  
[Neah] why? [received 9:27 P.M.]  
[Mana] well I did find a small child bleeding out on my porch. [sent 9:28 P.M.]  
[Neah] I guess that's true. Well, do you want me to bring you dinner? [received 9:30 P.M.]

Mana’s about to decline when his stomach gives a loud growl. 

[Mana] yeah. That'd be nice. [sent 9:31 P.M.] 

Mana receives nothing back and puts his phone back in his pocket. He leans back in the chair and closes his eyes. 

“MANA!” Neah’s terrified scream fills Mana’s ears. 

Mana jerks back into complete awareness when there's a cry from the boy laying in the bed across from him. Mana damn near dives to the bed to comfort the wailing child. 

“Hey hey! Shhh, it's alright, you're safe,” He mumbles and the child, now awake, clings to him much like Neah does when he has a particularly bad nightmare. 

“No! No hurt me!” He cries, his words are slurred and half formed.

“No no! No one's gonna hurt you, shh,” Mana says, gently rocking the small boy. 

By the time Mana gets the boy calmed down Neah is there and he has to lay the boy on the bed to go get him. Though as soon as he's back in the room the boy is clinging to him. Doctor Wolf stands at the end of the bed, questioning the boy. As Mana eats he slips the boy in his lap small pieces of food when the other doctor isn't looking. The small boy shrinks back into him every time anyone comes near him that's not Mana, especially after the ‘Officials’ show up.

“What's your name?” Dr. Wolf asks the boy in his lap and the little boy just shakes his head sadly. 

“Do, do you not have one?” Neah asks from the chair in the corner of the room and the boy nods his head. Mana frowns sadly and looks over at Neah. 

“Where do you live?” One of the Officials, Mana didn't bother listening to their names, he didn't much care for them. They looked at the boy in his arms like a vulture looks at dead animals.

“With Miss Miranda!” He chirps back. “She takes care of us! But the big kids are mean to me. They did this, they hurt me. They don't like me. They thought I was gonna get a family. Cause I am little.” 

“So you live in Miranda's orphanage?” Mana asks, eyes wide as he swivels quickly to Neah whose pressed harshly against the back of his chair with eyes and a pale face. 

Allen and Neah were supposed to go to Miranda's the day Allen disappeared. They were going to adopt a child. 

A few hours later finds Mana holding Neah close, the boy asleep in his bed and Miranda is talking to the doctor near them. 

“We can't afford to keep him in the hospital… I don't think we can even afford his visit so far,” He hears Miranda whisper. 

“Mana… Mana we have to, we have to take him… He was the one. The one Allen and I were going to..” Neah begins to shake. 

“Neah, shhh. We’ll talk to her. We’ll figure it out,” Mana murmurs to him, rocking slightly. 

Mana bites his lip and turns towards Miranda. “I'll pay for him. I'll pay for everything,” 

“Oh sir, I couldn't let you do that!” She gasps. 

“It's quite alright, I promise,” He smiles gently at her, leaning a sleeping Neah back in his chair. “I'd like to talk to you about adopting him,” He adds, standing and stretching himself out. 

The coming months are filled with visits to the hospital where the boy, who Neah’s dubbed Allen jr, visits from social workers and paperwork. It's all worth it though the day Allen gets out of the hospital and Mana and Neah take him home. 

“Aren't I suppose to go with miss Miranda's though?” He asks, confused. 

“Nope! Not anymore, you get to come live with us now!” Neah grins happily, though his eyes are sad. 

“Really!?” Allen chirps grinning and reaching for Neah to take him from Mana. The two year old boy, as they found out from Miranda, bounces excitedly as he is taken towards Mana's car. 

“Yep!” Neah pats his head with the hand not holding him up. 

The next three years are some of the best that Mana and Neah have had in awhile. Allen livens things up around the house, though it is a bit of a struggle for him having only one eye. Neah gets a little bit over his husband every passing month. Allen stays small and short, though not as much as he was when he was two. 

It's mid-day on the three year anniversary of Allen coming to live with them that everything stops being okay, everything goes downhill within mere hours of waking up. The three boys are at the park having a picnic when it happens. Allen shows up, not the small child Allen (who no matter how much they feed him barely gains weight ever), no, adult Neah's spouse Allen. Covered in dirt and grime and rotten skin with torn clothes and dripping blood and green goop everywhere. 

Mana and Neah don't stick around to find out what's going on as he attacks a man. They pack Allen and their stuff up and leave, never looking back.


End file.
